StarMan (63 page)

They sat some time in companionable silence. Belial remembered his earlier thought that he could ask Axis to play awhile, but a gentle hand on his shoulder stayed his words; he was fated, it seemed, not to hear the harp that night.

"Belial," a rich voice said, "I am pleased to see you again." The beautiful woman who had joined him outside Axis' tent the night Azhure had healed him was again standing by Belial's side and smiling at him.

Again his face reddened at the filmy robe she wore, and her eyes crinkled in amusement.

"I am here to talk with Axis, Belial, but you may stay. Listen. What I have to say should not be borne by Axis alone."

Bad news, then. The woman stepped to Axis' side and sank gracefully down beside him so that she sat close, her body touching his at hip and breast, her hand on his shoulder. "Axis."

He took a deep breath, unsettled by her appearance and her touch. "Xanon."

She leaned over the distance still between them and kissed Axis on the mouth and Belial stirred, remembering the extraordinary liberties that she and her companions had taken in greeting him that night.

The Star Gods, they had called themselves as they had farewelled him. Belial was not truly surprised by anything any more, not after the shocks of the past two years. Star Gods, perhaps, but the fact that they had said they were friends of Axis and Azhure was more important.

Well, Belial thought as he watched the woman draw slowly back, a smile on her lips, he hoped Azhure didn't mind the liberties friend Xanon took with her husband. "Axis, I have news." "The forest sings," he said. "I know."

"Yes, the forest sings. But Azhure and Faraday have done more than join the forests. Axis," her face lit up with pure joy, "Artor is destroyed!"

"Azhure?" Axis asked.

"Azhure is well. Oh, Axis! She is so well! She set her pack to hunt and she hounded Artor through the same wastes where he imprisoned us. He turned to fight, but he was no match. She set her knife, here,"

her hand pressed against his breast, "and she turned it about in his heart. Artor is no more."

Axis sighed and closed his eyes. "Artor is no more."

Belial sat, staring at them. Azhure had hunted
Artorl
By the Mother, what sort of woman was she?

Axis opened his eyes and smiled at Xanon, gently lifting her hand from his chest where she had let it rest. "And now Azhure comes to join me?"

Xanon stiffened and she turned her face away.

"What's wrong? Xanon,
what's wrong?"

"Axis." Xanon ran her tongue across her lips. "Axis, Gorgrael has taken Caelum."

Caelum?

Belial did not hear the thought, but he saw the horror ripple across Axis' face and felt it himself.

Mother! He dropped his eyes from Axis' face, unable to bear the agony he saw there.

Axis stirred as if to rise but Xanon wrapped her arms about him and kept him down.

"Caelum?" he whispered.

"We do not know how," Xanon said. "How could Gorgrael have snatched the boy from Sigholt?"

"I have to go to him -"

"No!" Xanon's arms tightened and her hands dug into his upper arms. "No, Axis, you can't!"

"I can't?" he shouted, and tried to twist away from her. "Who are you to tell me that I
can't?"

"I am the voice of reason," Xanon said fiercely.
"Listen to me, Axis!
Why has Gorgrael snatched Caelum?
Why?
To trap you, that's why."

"She's right," Belial said, and Axis threw him a furious glance.

"Listen to us," Xanon continued.
"Listen,
damn you! Gorgrael can feel his power slipping. He's moved to desperate measures. Stars knows the risk he took in snatching Caelum from Sigholt. With the boy he hopes that he can tempt you away from Gorken Pass. Tempt you into making a precipitous rush to his Ice Fortress without the Rainbow Sceptre fast in your hand. Axis, if you do not hold the Sceptre he will defeat you."

"Caelum," Axis muttered, seeming not to have heard Xanon's words. "Has Gorgrael killed him?"

"You would have felt it, had he died," Xanon said, her eyes bright with compassion.

"Then he lives to be tortured by Gorgrael," Axis said bitterly. "Perhaps death would be preferable.

Xanon? What can I do?"

She hesitated, then stroked his face with a hand. "You will have to trust in Azhure."

"Azhure?" Now Axis did manage to free himself from her encircling arms. "
Azhure?"

"She is the only one who can help him at the moment." "She is the only one who can be risked, you mean!" Axis snarled.

"You cannot go, Axis! This is
exactly
what Gorgrael wants! To meet you without the Rainbow Sceptre in your hands! That would mean instant victory for him."

Axis let Xanon wrap him in her arms once more, and she rocked him gently for a few minutes.

"Will she be in danger?" Axis asked eventually. "Yes, Axis, I am afraid she will be, but Adamon will help her as much as he can."

"She defeated Artor." Axis tried to find hope. "Yes," Xanon replied, "but she cannot hope to kill Gorgrael. His power is...different...to Artor's, and Artor was already mortally damaged by the collapse of the Seneschal and the loss of faith in the Way of the Plough. And Azhure could use the power of the Nine, the full circle, to aid her against Artor. She cannot hunt Gorgrael."

"She can use none of her skills against Gorgrael? But his power is weakened, too."

"Axis," Xanon spoke slowly, but firmly. "Gorgrael's life is tied to yours by the Prophecy. None can be destroyed unless it be by the other. Yes, Gorgrael's power has weakened, but only concerning his hold over the weather. Otherwise he is as virulent as ever he was."

"Then Stars help her," Axis whispered, "for without her, Gorkenfort will be lost. / will be lost."

Gorgrael tilted his head and snarled at the fretting baby. He lifted his taloned hand again, but this time he stayed the blow.

The baby would be no use dead.

But if Gorgrael had known that the baby would fret and whimper and whine night and day then he would seriously have reconsidered the entire plan.

"Silence!" he hissed, and the baby swallowed and tried to halt his ceaseless crying, staring at Gorgrael with eyes wide with terror and pain.

Mama?

"Your Mama will not help you here, wretch." Gorgrael dropped his hand and regarded the baby, his silver eyes merciless. The fact that this baby was his nephew meant nothing to him. In fact, Gorgrael did not know what it was about this limp, constantly complaining lump of flesh that made Axis and his woman love it so much.

Would Axis risk all to rescue it?

Well, he would know soon enough. If Axis was going to try then he would try soon. After all, who knew what the nasty Destroyer was doing to the poor little baby?

Gorgrael smiled and teased the baby with a rough claw down the length of his body.

The boy whimpered despite his attempts to keep silent and Gorgrael's face twisted. Nasty,
nasty
thing! He dug his claw in, to teach the thing to keep still and quiet, and the boy screwed his eyes shut and opened his mouth.

But no sound came out. The scream remained silent.

"Good baby," Gorgrael smiled, and patted the thing on the head. "Good baby."

Perhaps the mewly creature could be trained, after all.

The DreamFrom the edge of the great forest Azhure flew north-west, across the Nordra and down the HoldHard Pass. Flew almost literally, for Azhure wrapped herself and her horse in so much power that she made the eight- to ten-day journey in under three. Behind her the hounds coursed silently, their breath reserved for running.

Azhure did not stop the entire way, and yet, when she reined up before the bridge into Sigholt, Venator still pranced as fresh as the hour he had begun his run and the hounds milled restlessly about his legs.

"Well?" Azhure demanded as the horse stepped onto the bridge.

"He is gone," the bridge mourned, "and we do not know where. I -"

The bridge had been about to confess her own sin in his kidnap but Azhure had not waited to hear it.

Already she was sliding from Venator's back in the courtyard of the Keep and running for the entrance.

Rivkah, sitting morosely with Cazna in the Great Hall after their evening meal, leapt to her feet as the door burst open.

"Azhure!" She held out her arms to hug her but Azhure evaded them.

"Well?"

Cazna stood, her face pale. For two days and nights she had remained abed, so terrified she could not rise, seeing again and again as Imibe was torn apart; watching again and again as the horrific creature stood over her, one hand raised to smite her dead, the other clutched about Caelum, dangling helpless at his side.

"The roof," Cazna said, and Azhure swung her fierce glare her way.

"You were there?'

Cazna nodded, then winced and cried out as Azhure seized her shoulders in rough hands. "
What
happened?"

"We were on the roof. Imibe, myself and the children."

"DragonStar too?" Azhure snapped.

Cazna nodded, her blue eyes enormous.

"And?"

"And . . . and a great shadow fell from the sky. A Gryphon, from the description I have heard of them. On its back was . . . a creature fouler than any nightmare, Azhure. He went straight for Imibe, who held Caelum. She . . . she was torn to bits."

Azhure briefly closed her eyes. Imibe had been a friend. Poor Imibe; and yet she had died a warrior's death, protecting Caelum to the last.

And poor Caelum. Twice in his short life to have such horror descend on him from the skies.
"And?"

"And the creature seized Caelum from her arms," Cazna continued hoarsely, more terrified now by the anger in Azhure's eyes than by the memory.

"And yet you lived?
Why,
Cazna?" Her voice was very soft.

"Would you that I died too, Azhure? Would that make you feel better?" Now it was Cazna who battled with her temper. "The creature turned and came for me. I thought I
was
dead! I cowered on the paving, trying to protect Drago with my body ..."

Would that he was the one taken, Azhure thought.

"...but he paused, his taloris," Cazna shuddered, "red with Imibe's blood, then stepped back. 'A witness,' he said. 'Good.' Then he mounted his flying creature, Caelum...Caelum still caught fast in his claws, and flew away. Azhure . . . Azhure! I could do nothing!"

Rivkah glanced at Cazna, then took Azhure by the arm. "Azhure," she said, "Azhure, who was it?"

Azhure looked at her, confused. What did she mean? She blinked, then realised that the women could not know. "Gorgrael," she said.

"Oh Stars!" Rivkah cried.
"Gorgrael?
Why?" "Why do you think, Rivkah? For the company?"

Azhure's voice crackled across the hall and Cazna stepped backwards. Never had she seen Azhure so angry.

"
Why,
Rivkah? To trap either Axis or myself." "Azhure, what will you do?"

Azhure stared at her. "I will go after him. I have to. How can I abandon Caelum to Gorgrael?" "But you just said that -"

"A trap? Yes, it surely is. But better that I be trapped than Axis." Azhure paused. "Better I die than he."

Then she turned on her heel and stalked from the hall.

The roof was quiet, bathed in cold moonlight. Yet Caelum's terror still reverberated here. When Azhure closed her eyes she could
feel
his scream, see with his eyes as the shadow plummeted from the skies, recoil with him as Imibe's hot blood splattered across his face.

She lowered her head into her hands and wept. What could she do? She had virtually exhausted her strength in her mad dash to Sigholt - could she now do the same to reach Gorgrael's Ice Fortress? No.

No, not that. Even with renewed strength and power it would still take her days, weeks, to reach the icy tundra.

And by then Caelum would surely be dead. If Gorgrael did not kill him, the boy would not be able to live so long with this degree of terror. Even now, even if she could rescue him this night, the experience would scar him for the rest of his life.

Azhure sank to her knees, then slowly collapsed so that she rested her forehead on the cold stone paving.

Caelum was dead. If not now, then soon. She cried until she could cry no more, then she slowly sat up, her face ravaged with grief. She sniffed, and tried to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

"Here, let me do that for you."

She jumped, even though she'd instantly recognised Adamon's soft voice.

He knelt down beside her and held her close, cradling her against his warm body, wiping her face with soft, dry hands. "Adamon..."

"I know, sweetheart, I know."

"Why does Caelum have to be the one to suffer like this?
Why?
Why not me or Axis?'

"Have not you and Axis suffered enough, Azhure? Why wish more on yourself?" "But
Caeluml"

"Shush," he crooned into her hair, holding her tight against him. "Caelum yet lives, and he is as strong in body and spirit as his parents." "But -"

"I know, Azhure. But now you listen to me." Adamon drew back so he could look her in the eyes.

"You were right when you told Rivkah that Gorgrael wants to trap Axis. But he does not know you. He does not know the strength of your love, nor the strength of your determination. There remains the slight chance that you can rescue Caelum."

Azhure seized on the hope he offered. "How? Can I storm Gorgrael's Ice Fortress? Can I destroy him as I did Artor?"

Adamon risked a small smile, masking his own anxiety. "So many questions! Azhure, to rescue Caelum will take all your courage and cunning and then more. Gorgrael is not like Artor. He is dangerous

. . . far more dangerous than the Plough god, and if he corners
you,
traps
you,
then the Prophecy will be torn apart and Axis will die." "Why?"

"Because then Gorgrael would have
you,
Axis' Lover, and your death would be Axis' death."

"The third verse ..." Azhure whispered. Adamon nodded. "Yes, the third verse. Azhure, you cannot go storming in there with hounds clamouring and an arrow to the Wolven. Gorgrael would laugh at you, rip your hounds apart and break the Wolven over his knee - he may doubt himself sometimes, but never doubt that he is more powerful than you. And once your bow and your hounds were gone, Gorgrael would take you. And he would have many weeks in which to enjoy you before Axis arrived."